• Why bandits attack Catholic priests, by HURIWA
Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, knocked the Federal Government over poor handling of the nation’s security.
It described the situation as equivalent to ceding the country to terrorists.
A statement by National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, described a recent confession by President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, as “very unfortunate and an admission of failure” by government.
Shehu had said government was “deceived” into releasing the detained wife and children of a terrorist without reciprocal freeing of the abducted Abuja-Kaduna train attack victims.
Afenifere said: “In view of the fact that government is expected to possess superior power in virtually everything above others in a country; considering the fact that the primary responsibilities of the government are provision of security and welfare for the people; and considering the fact that the current administration has failed to provide either security or welfare for the people of Nigeria in recent times, one may not be wrong to state that President Buhari’s government has greatly lost the confidence, trust and hope invested in it at inception. It is a pity. ”
Shehu, on Friday, had said, in part: “The commander of the terrorist group requested that the government release his pregnant wife, which was done. The government even took her to the hospital for safe delivery and she delivered twins.
“The government went further to show him his wife and the twins, so that he would believe and see that the mother and the babies were in good condition.
“We then handed over his family to his parents. Unfortunately, after all this, he failed to honour the agreement reached. We were deceived.”
The Afenifere spokesman said Shehu’s disclosure confirms suspicion and allegation that have been in public domain for a long time, to wit: government not only knows the terrorists, it is aware of where they are.
He said: “Why the government refuses to confront them and put an end to the needless loses and agonies of Nigerians is a riddle one finds difficult to unravel.”
MEANWHILE, rights body, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, also criticised the Federal Government and security agencies over growing incidents of kidnapping and killings of Catholic priests.
It lamented that the priests have become endangered species and soft targets for suspected Fulani bandits busy promoting their kidnap-for-ransom business.
National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, urged the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council to speak up and condemn the persecution of Catholics in the country.
Onwubiko added: “The recurring killings and kidnapping of Catholic priests all over the country is another loud sign of the failure of the Buhari government.”
Source: Guardian.ng